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I was surprised to discover no one had yet posted a clip of Queen Elizabeth's coronation--so I took the liberty of doing it. On February 6, 1952, George VI, the reigning monarch of the British Commonwealth, died from smoking-related health problems. He was just 56 years old. By the rules of succession, his eldest daughter, 25-year-old Elizabeth, became the new Queen. She was making a goodwill tour of Kenya when she learned she was the new British monarch. Her ceremonial coronation took more than a year to plan. It finally occurred on June 2, 1953. Here is a four-minute clip of her receiving the various symbols of power. Because coronations happen so rarely--and this is the most recent--few people realize how religious the ceremony is. (The monarch is supposed to be "the Defender of the Faith.") Recorded for posterity in spectacularly rich color, the film looks like it could have been shot yesterday--not in 1953. Because satellite broadcasting was not yet a reality, special arrangements were made for North American TV viewers to see the event as soon as possible. The undeveloped film of the ceremony was put aboard a Canadian fighter jet. A technician developed the film in a dark room while the plane was over the Atlantic. About five hours after the event occurred, the airplane landed in Canada. The freshly developed film was rushed to a CBC broadcast studio where it aired throughout Canada. American networks picked up the CBC's feed. Elizabeth II recently celebrated her 89th birthday. If she lives past the first week of September 2015, she will surpass Queen Victoria (her great-great-grandmother) as the longest-reigning monarch in British history. There's no reason to believe she won't attain that milestone. By all accounts Elizabeth II enjoys excellent health, she is still quite active, and her mother lived to be 102 years old. Tags:coronationElizabethIIroyaltyAdded: 23rd April 2015Views: 880Rating:Posted By:Lava1964

On April 21, 1980 unheralded Rosie Ruiz was the first woman to cross the finish line in the prestigious Boston Marathon. Her apparent victory in record time was immediately suspicious. First, everyone assumed Jacqueline Gareau was the leading female. Nobody saw Gareau lose the lead in the race at anytime after the eighth mile. Furthermore, Ruiz's running shoes were barely scuffed and she was hardly perspiring in the unseasonably warm weather. Two Harvard University students signed affidavits stating they saw Ruiz illegally enter the course just a few hundred yards from the finish line. Ruiz denied the accusations and maintained she had run unnoticed among a pack of male runners. Few people believed her story and she was subsequently disqualified after an investigation. To this day Ruiz has stubbornly refused to return her winner's medal, so Gareau was given a larger medal. Twenty five years later Gareau was ceremoniously allowed to break the tape--a thrill that Ruiz deprived her from experiencing in 1980. Ruiz had qualified to run in Boston by finishing the 1979 New York City Marathon with a decent time, but investigators discovered she had cheated there too. (She left the course after a few hundred yards, took a subway train to an area near the finish line, illegally re-entered the race and finished 26th.) Ruiz promised to prove her innocence by winning the 1980 New York City Marathon. She never showed up. Tags:RosieRuizcheaterBostonMarathonAdded: 30th November 2007Views: 3462Rating:Posted By:Lava1964

Cassandra (Cass) Elliot had the best success of any of the four members of The Mamas and the Papas after the group split up. She had solo hits with 'Dream A Little Dream of Me' and 'Make Your Own Kind of Music.' In the summer of 1974 she embarked on a tour of England where she played two weeks of sold-out gigs. Her terrific voice earned her a standing ovation each night. On July 29, 1974, after her tour had ended, Elliot died in her sleep in a London flat. She was 32. Immediately after her death, gossip columns speculated that Elliot died from choking on a ham sandwich. Speaking to the press shortly after her body was discovered, the police noted that a partly eaten sandwich had been found in her room and speculated that Elliot may have choked while eating it. When an autopsy was performed, no food was found in her trachea and the cause of death was determined to have been a heart attack. But by then, the story was already making the rounds and the real cause of Elliot's death was rarely discussed. The incorrect story has, sadly, remained a part of popular culture as an urban myth. Tags:CassElliotdeathAdded: 7th December 2009Views: 1974Rating:Posted By:Lava1964

Starring the voices of Jane Seymour & James Naughton, this new children's film is set after World War II. It's a warm and touching magical story that tells of two unforgettable and unlikely friends; an abandoned and discarded Christmas bulb, and the eight year old boy who rescues him. Broken and useless, Little Light feels hopeless and young Timothy empathizes with his plight. He believes that Little Light can "shine" again. When a fierce winter storm causes a blackout, Little Light triumphs over all odds, his self doubt, and "shines," lighting the way for others to "see the light." This animated treasure shares the miracle of believing and the power of the human heart. This is the kind of story that is both for children and adults. Tags:thelittlestlightonthechristmastreejaneseymourjamesnaughtonchristmasfilmsAdded: 13th December 2007Views: 1173Rating:Posted By:Babs64

One of the most intriguing missing persons cases is that of Toronto theatre magnate Ambrose J. Small. Small was last seen alive on December 2, 1919 after selling his theatre chain for $1 million--a fantastic sum in those days. He lunched with his wife Theresa at the King Edward Hotel, gave her the check to deposit in their bank account, bought some newspapers from a young street vendor--and vanished forever. Small's disappearance was not reported to the police by his wife for nearly two weeks, leading to speculation that she was involved. Theresa was well known in Toronto for her charitable deeds and was used to Ambrose vanishing without warning for extended periods while away on gambling binges. To spare Theresa embarrassment, the Toronto Police did not formally announce Small was missing until his disappearance was reported in the Toronto Star in January 1920. Small had made his fortune in the theatre business staging low-brow plays often with risque themes. After his disappearance it was discovered that Small had a secret 'love nest' above his Grand Opera House in Toronto where he often 'entertained' chorus girls. Not long after Small vanished, his bookkeeper John Doughty vanished too with $105,000 in bonds taken from Small's safe deposit box. Doughty was later found in Oregon and arrested for theft. He was given a five-year prison sentence. Despite international headlines and a $50,000 reward, no trace of Small was ever found. An elderly Grand Opera House employee claimed to have overheard a violent argument between Small and Doughty on the afternoon Small vanished. The case was officially closed by Toronto police in 1960. Modern investigators recently found a memo written by an investigating officer in 1936, a year after Theresa died. The memo stated there was ample evidence that Ambrose Small had been murdered and that both Theresa Small and John Doughty were guilty of the crime--indicating that the Toronto Police were somehow involved in a major cover-up. The ghost of Ambrose Small is said to haunt one of his old theatres in London, Ontario. Tags:AmbroseSmalldisappearanceAdded: 15th December 2007Views: 1989Rating:Posted By:Lava1964

This song, recorded by The Beatles in 1968, and originally titled 'Hey Jules', was written by McCartney to comfort John Lennon's son, Julian, during his parents' divorce. Julian discovered the song had been written for him almost twenty years later. He remembered being closer to McCartney than to his father: 'Paul and I used to hang about quite a bit more than Dad and I did. We had a great friendship going and there seems to be far more pictures of me and Paul playing together at that age than there are pictures of me and my dad.' Although McCartney originally wrote the song for Julian, John thought it had actually been written for him: 'I always heard it as a song to me. If you think about it... Yoko had just come into the picture. He's saying. 'Hey, Jude—Hey, John.' I know I'm sounding like one of those fans who reads things into it, but you can hear it as a song to me. Subconsciously, he was saying, 'Go ahead, leave me.' On a conscious level, he didn't want me to go ahead at all.'
Tags:thebeatlesheyjudepaulmccartneyjohnlennonAdded: 16th December 2007Views: 77848Rating:Posted By:Sophia

This is a clip from the 1995 made for TV version of 'Bye Bye Birdie', starring Jason Alexander, Vanessa Williams and Marc Kudisch. I like the movie version with Dick Van Dyke better, but this is closer to the Broadway version. In any case, Jason is quite talented isn't he? Tags:byebyebirdiejasonalexandervanessawilliamsmarckudischabctvAdded: 19th December 2007Views: 6615Rating:Posted By:Babs64

Comic pianist Victor Borge was a mystery challenger on What's My Line on October 11, 1959. The unusual aspect is the occupation the panel had to discover was 'farmer' not 'musician!' Tags:VictorBorgeWhatsMyLineAdded: 20th March 2009Views: 1408Rating:Posted By:Lava1964

In January 1959, actor Errol Flynn appeared on Front Page Challenge, a Canadian game show similar to What's My Line. Flynn discusses his experiences during the Cuban Revolution. Flynn died later that year. Tags:EroolFlynnCubaAdded: 20th January 2008Views: 2478Rating:Posted By:Lava1964